Sunday, September 09, 2007

End game

Today Greenwald rips the predictable 3-card Monte that is the current Petreus dance. I commented thusly:

Many of us saw this game as a sham from the outset. The very opposition we empowered last November is rewarding us with a textbook display of gullibility and cowardice. Predictable. Predicted.

But if we knew how this was going to play out, I think we have to follow the logical flow chart one more level, and ask ourselves another painful question. We knew we were Cassandras, condemned to see the tragedy but be ignored on our prophesy. So why did we play our part as we did?

We were not played in the sense that we expected anyone else to act differently. But perhaps we were played in the sense that we continued to do what we do -- see and speak the truth -- and thought that, this time, this time, it will make a difference. Like the soldiers in Iraq, we have a powerful psychological need to believe what we are doing is right, and that it matters. But does it? Measured in blood and treasure, it hard to avoid the conclusion that we have accomplished as little as they have. We continue to be right. They (and untold Iraqis) continue to die.

I am deeply depressed by this question. I do not claim to know what the answer is. Trusting the Democratic Party to change things has been proven foolish. As the game has been played during my lifetime, the path of the third party has been utterly counterproductive (though that depends on your perspective -- no Ross Perot, no President Clinton). Taking to the streets seems at best ineffective, a tree falling in a forest where no TV crews will hear it. My playbook is empty.

I fear that a massive attack on Iran is now inevitable. I fear that truths that you discuss here each day are like colors to an increasingly blind nation. And I fear that there is no path back from here -- that, like Iraq, our nation has gone too far down the path of entropy to salvage.

Then I followed another commenter's lead to this (from newly blogrolled Chris Floyd:

Tomorrow is here. The game is over. The crisis has passed -- and the patient is dead. Whatever dream you had about what America is, it isn't that anymore. It's gone. And not just in some abstract sense, some metaphorical or mythological sense, but down in the nitty-gritty, in the concrete realities of institutional structures and legal frameworks, of policy and process, even down to the physical nature of the landscape and the way that people live.

The Republic you wanted -- and at one time might have had the power to take back -- is finished. You no longer have the power to keep it; it's not there. It was kidnapped in December 2000, raped by the primed and ready exploiters of 9/11, whored by the war pimps of the 2003 aggression, gut-knifed by the corrupters of the 2004 vote, and raped again by its "rescuers" after the 2006 election. Beaten, abused, diseased and abandoned, it finally died. We are living in its grave.

3 Comments:

Anonymous said...

Okay. So NOW can we talk?

Those of us with "not enough money" are tricked into asking "How much IS enough". The question makes sense to us (poor people) and, since we are human beings, it would seem reasonable to apply it to other human beings, even ALL human beings. And there is the rub.

There really IS such a thing as "enough money". Just because you or I don't know anyone who has enough money doesn't mean the condition is unreachable. Now here's the thing, the Bush's of the world (the whole Bush/Rockefeller/Saud/Windsor/Harriman ad nauseum family and their 5,000 or so near cousins, including the ones in Russia, China, India AND Iran) have ALWAYS had enough money. NEVER any danger of that changing. Their game has never been about more money. What, after all, can you do with multiple C5a aircraft filled with hundred dollar bills? Not as much as you might think. Their game has always been about control. Once you separate the idea of money per se from the real levers that offer the power to control, as they have for hundreds of years, the options left to YOU (poor people) look very different.

These "folks what got" don't care about rules, laws, ethics, religion (well actually, no one should care about religion – that's just one of their tools for manipulation), or any of the other molders and shapers of YOUR behavior. At least as far as these things would apply to them. Fuggedaboutit! So, money is not a motivator for them, nor any of the items listed above, and that means your real options that could remotely have a real effect on THEM are???

Well, you can work it out for yourself and if you can't it doesn't matter. Just go back to sleep.

Talk truth/equality/justice/righteousness/balance/fairness to THAT power? Gimme a break and pass whatever it is your smoking. It has to be good.

Some thoughts:A cell of one can never be infiltrated.Like THEY keep saying, if you kill 'em, they'll never do THAT again, no matter what THAT is (or who THEY are).If you wait for life to be truly, ultimately unbearable before taking action, you probably won't be allowed (able) to take any action at all.While could be useful if you have an idea of what to replace THIS with, it's clearly not mandatory. The guys in charge don't actually have a plan. They just use tried and true rules of thumb for continuing to dominate ruthlessly. They don't know what THIS is, nor do they care, as long as it continues to serve them. Considering "next steps" is for dummies without power.Rich man's rule #43: Delay is as good as Never. Don't want it, delay it, on an on and….

Well, that should be enough for now. Anybody out there NOT lining up for the edge of the cliff?

Don't spend too much time in that depression, bluememe. It's hard to find a reason for optimism, but I need you to remain poised to pounce if an outside chance presents itself. Maybe you'll run into someone who can make a difference, but he or she can't quite put it together until you provide your 2 cents.

You do the best you can. You don't abandon faith in reason, in the value of truth and facts, because they are the only avenue out of this mess. Maybe you don't do the best you can every minute of every day, but you rise to the occasion often enough to be able to stand tall.

Your pirate executive and your Congress for sale haven't done the best they could. Point your finger back at them and keep raising hell.